Clocks, musical instruments and carriages
The Trust owns many objects designed to be operated mechanically, such as clocks, musical instruments and carriages, as well as various other pieces of machinery. These are kept in working order, unless this would conflict with their long-term preservation: for example, the likelihood of serious wear and tear, or the risk of having to replace significant original components.
It is because of such considerations that only a very few of the Trust’s important collection of carriages can be driven. To minimise wear clocks are carefully overhauled and lubricated, and only run for those months when the houses are open to visitors; their original weights are sometimes removed, labelled and preserved, and lighter ones substituted.
Weight driven barrel organs can be relieved of a certain amount of strain in the same way. Stringed keyboard instruments, by contrast, are more often among those instruments no longer played. Serious distortion can result from keeping their strings under playing tension and repairs would too often involve the unacceptable sacrifice of original parts or materials.
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